March 29: Coming to Kiwi Land

This morning started early. Our flight from Sydney to Christchurch was scheduled to depart at 8:35am. Even though our hotel was literally across the roadway from the airport terminal, I wanted to get a 5:30 am start for breakfast, then check in and security clearance. Patrise wanted to leave the hotel at 6:30am. The night before, she had ordered breakfast -- croissant sandwiches to go -- to facilitate a later departure time.

Well, neither scenario proved correct. We both were wide awake before 5:30. We dressed, and waited for breakfast, which was supposed to be delivered between 6 and 6;30am. At 6:25am, I grew nervous and called Room Service; They said the delivery was on the way. When the waiter arrived with the food two minutes later, the order was all wrong! They delivered cereal and two cafe lattes, rather than two croissant sandwiches, one cafe latte and one English breakfast tea. We grabbed the two coffees and left. about 6:40am.

When we arrived at the airport, it took a long time for us to get checked in. We were flying to Christchurch on a Quantas flight, but the flight was being operated by Emirates Airlines; thus, our check in was at an Emirates counter. It just so happened that Emirates had only resumed flying to New Zealand -- since ceasing operations during the pandemic -- two days before our flight; and our ticket counter representative was new and had not done this before. To complicate matters, we were flagged as a security risk in their system because we had tickets to leave Australia, but no return tickets. The question being whether we would be overstaying the period of our visas in New Zealand. We explained that we would be traveling in New Zealand and eventually leaving from Auckland, not Christchurch, to return to Australia. Now all of this was in the New Zealand electronic travel authorization system, as well as in the Australian electronic travel authorization system. (If you have not traveled internationally in recent years, everything has gone electronic, rather than using paper visas.) Fortunately, there were two experienced counter attendants nearby, and between the two of them, they helped the new employee learn how to work around the system, to get our clearance for check in.

Our flight was being delayed anyway, so we had time to go to a restaurant for a leisurely sit down breakfast, and we still had time to make it to the terminal and sit around awhile before the boarding began.

The Emirates/Qantas flight was aboard an Airbus A380 -- a very large plane with two levels of seating. Even though we were in the "Economy" section on the bottom level, there was plenty of legroom, the crew was professional -- Patrise loved the flight attendants' attire -- and the entertainment section was outstanding. After a three hour flight with no drama, we landed in Christchurch, New Zealand. New Zealand: land of the Kiwis.

After clearing Immigration and Customs, we were met by our driver.. After loading our luggage in the driver's car, but before departing the airport, we had a lengthy and disturbing conversation with the driver about our itinerary for Friday, March 31. Our expectation was that the local tour company would be taking us to see Mt. Cook and the Tasman Glacier. The driver said her interpretation of the tour description was that the driver would take us to the Hermitage Hotel (near Mt. Cook) for pictures and drop us off at the entrance to the Hooker Valley, which constituted of a 3-1/2 hour walk to and from a view of Mt. Cook....and there would be no opportunity to see the Tasman Glacier.

We were monumentally upset, because we had made it clear to the Kensington Tour Agency, the agency with whom we originally made the arrangements, that we were not planning to do long recreational hiking and that Mt. Cook and the Tasman Glacier were the two primary sights we wanted to visit while in Christchurch. We departed the airport without having this settled. Later, in our hotel room, Patrise and I worked out our on plan for seeing Mt. Cook and the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand's longest glacier. We were doubly angered by the local agency saying there was no way to see the Glacier on our trip: we had discovered online, that we could go to the local national park, Mt. Cook National Park, and we could walk a 40-minute trail to a viewpoint that enables us to see both Mt. Cook and the Tasman Glacier. And we could do so for free!!!! We don't know

whether the problem is with our original agency or with the local agency that is supposed to handle our New Zealand arrangements, We only know for sure that this is not the way we planned the trip.

We were driven to the hotel, The George and checked in. The hotel is a very nice hotel and staff are wonderfully helpful, warm, and courteous. We settled into our room, unpacked, and through the concierge, we made a reservation for a good, local restaurant, Strawberry Fare.

We went to Strawberry Fare later. Afterwards, we walked the three blocks from the restaurant to the hotel. it was a cool, crisp evening; the fresh air and exercise were the perfect after dinner fare for the long day. Here are pictures of the George at night.

After dinner, I shortly went to bed, because jet lag had finally caught up to me.